Campaign Action
Over one hundred companies from the tech industry—including Facebook, IBM, Google, Lyft, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Twitter—have filed a legal brief supporting a lawsuit filed by California, Minnesota, Maryland, and Maine over Donald Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and put 800,000 undocumented immigrant youth at risk of deportation.
"Just as DACA sent a powerful message of inclusion, its rescission tells the immigrants who have been integral to the growth and development of our society and economy for decades that they are no longer welcome here,” the brief notes. “As a result, DACA’s rescission will reduce the future ability of U.S. companies to attract individuals from around the world to support America’s continued economic growth and prosperity."
In its own brief, Apple wrote the company “and its customers have benefitted greatly from their intelligence, ambition, creativity, resilience, and hard work. These employees are important contributors to Apple's unique culture. That unique culture enables employees throughout Apple to do the best work of their lives and excel at creating the most innovative products and providing the very best customer service.” Apple employs over 250 DACA recipients, according to Reuters.
The move from the tech companies comes as California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and other state leaders and groups have asked a federal judge to block Trump’s move to end DACA until the court can rule on a pending lawsuit. California, home to some of the nation’s foremost tech companies, is also home to the largest population of DACA recipients in the nation. Many of these companies had already released statements in support of DACA before its recession.
DACA recipients “contribute to our company and help to drive innovation and excellence at IBM,” said Christopher Padilla, VP of government affairs. “In fact, one of our Dreamers recently worked around-the-clock remote shifts to ensure continuity of IBM services when Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston. BM is actively urging Congress to find a permanent legislative solution to enable Dreamers to stay in the United States. We have also urged the court in this case to find that DACA's revocation was unfounded. The program is due to begin phasing out in less than five months, and we are committed to providing as much stability and predictability as possible to DACA recipients who work at IBM."
Of course, we know immigrant youth aren’t just tech innovators, they’re also parents, artists, students, health professionals, community leaders, and so much more, and Congress must pass a clean DREAM Act in order to ensure they can continue living in the only country they’ve ever known as home. A full list of the over 100 tech companies who filed the brief is available here.
